City On A Hill Productions | Blog

Our Mission Field

Shane — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:15:25 +0000

The blog video that you’re about to watch is a great example of all that God has done and all that He’s yet to do in the ministry of City on a Hill Productions. You’ll learn more about who we are and what God is up to.

For all of these exciting adventures, YOU have been along with us for the journey. As God leads you to financially make this work possible, you are as central to our work as the person running the camera, the team building the set, and the actors on the screen.

As you plan your year-end giving, we boldly ask you to remember City on a Hill Productions. We ask for your support with confidence, because we know that we work toward the highest calling of all-bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We ask for your support with excitement, because we know how your gifts will be used.

It’s a fact-people have already come to salvation because of the work your support makes possible. We ask you to close this year by making an eternal investment through City on a Hill Productions.

Like every other ministry, year-end gifts are a critical part of our yearly finances. This year we need to raise $120,000 to meet our year-end goal for 2008 and to make possible a successful ‘09.

Donating online is secure and convenient. If you want to donate to a specific staff member, please designate their name in the comments field of the electronic donation form. Click here to donate.

Please know that we appreciate your support and see your contribution as provision from God’s hand. We honor your giving through our commitment to changing the culture for Christ through media.

May God bless you and your family this Christmas season, and grant you His favor in 2009.

In Christ,
Shane Sooter

Church Leaders & H2O

Shep — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:34:19 +0000

Since it’s release H2O has reached an untold number of people with the truth and message of Jesus. We rejoice with each and every story we hear of lives changed and restored. Hear from church leaders who have used H2O and experienced the resulting connection and life change in their groups and people they minister to. Here are some of those incredible stories…

In Romania

Molly — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:35:21 +0000

On Sunday, October 19th a team from City on a Hill comprised of Shane, Kevin, Cassie, Richie, and Meghan (Kevin’s daughter) set out for Romania. They are scouting locations for what will be our very first feature film!

Why Romania, you ask? We anticipate gaining the amazing privilege of telling the story of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, founders of the ministry – Voice of the Martyrs. Theirs is an unusual love story. As their love for God and each other grew and was strengthened in the midst of being persecuted and imprisoned by the Communist government that was taking root in Romania. Richard was locked away twice for a total of fourteen years, three of which were spent in solitary confinement.

Sabina was interned at a forced labor camp for three years and had to send their young son away to be taken care of by friends. While the City on a Hill crew is in Romania, they will be touring several of the locations where Richard and Sabina were imprisoned. Please pray for them as they travel through what were once the tortured footsteps of all those held captive by the Communist regime. Pray with us for their discernment as they analyze which locations will best tell the story of the Wurmbrands, as well as for their safe return to the U.S. on November 1st.

To gain a more in-depth knowledge of the Wurmbrands’ story the books “The Pastor’s Wife” (Sabina’s story) and “In God’s Underground” (Richard’s story) are excellent resources!

For many more photos and updates from the team while they are in Romania you can check out Richie’s blog.

$143,794…

Molly — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:59:38 +0000

It’s true. We are THRILLED to announce that on October 2nd at our Fall Event, $143,794 was raised! God is so faithful! A sincere Thank you to everyone who made this possible! Your faithful support is a blessing from the hand of God.

The evening was truly wonderful. Full with great food, silent & live auctions as well as a presentation that truly spoke of our ministry in a powerful way. Thank you to everyone who participated and made the evening memorable and fantastic!
Here is a small sample of the FUN!!!…

Beer and Bible?

Richie — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:46:02 +0000

Kevin, Cassie, and I recently drove to The University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana to interview brothers of the Lamda Chi Alpha fraternity. As it turns out, their advisor, Steve Parsons, has been leading them in weekly Bible studies often centered around the H2O series.

As a result, many of these young men had come to know Jesus Christ. We had the privilege of interviewing these men and attending one of their Bible studies at their frat house. It was incredible to see a room full of Christian and non-Christian guys glued to the television as Episode II played, and to see and hear how God has used H2O to break down barriers and give these guys the freedom to discuss and seek after Truth. It was also such a blessing to spend time with these guys and here about their new walk with Jesus and the changes He has brought to their lives.

As a new staff member, it is such an affirmation and encouragement to continually see how God uses this ministry draw people to Himself. I hope the testimonies of these men and their mentor will affirm and encourage all of you who have served with or supported City on a Hill Productions.

Richard Ramsey
Ministry Support Director

An H2O Testimony

Shep — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:09:02 +0000

At our fall event last week we were excited to share several awesome testimonies of how God has used the H2O series to reach people’s hearts with the gospel message. We gathered more stories than we could possibly fit into the time we had to share them… Here is one such story.

A dream 5 years in the making

Molly — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:17:35 +0000

Tomorrow is the big day.
This date has been set for over a year and still it seems impossible that tomorrow at 6:30pm we will have yet another Fall Event. Each year is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate all that God has done at CHP, however, I’m not gonna lie, it’s a ton of work. Most of the work is fun and all of it fulfilling, but still yet, work…hard work.

Wrangling together silent and live auction items, as well as producing a fun, seamless evening with a great presentation is tough. But each year, God makes the event better than the year before…and I believe that He will do this yet again.

This my 4th year doing the event and I’m especially excited and grateful for this party. It has honestly been a group effort. We have talked and toiled over the presentation, program and decor. We are all excited, all hopeful, and mostly we are grateful.

I know that for some, 5 years hardly seems like a long time…but to us, it has been a miracle to see God move and shake in this ministry every single day. To see us expand in numbers and grow in heart is truly miraculous.
God is good and for some reason His favor continues to bless us and keep us close to His heart and his beautifully creative spirit. We are so humbled to celebrate this miracle tomorrow.
If you haven’t reserved your tickets, please CLICK HERE now, or call 502.245.2425.

5 Year Birthday Party!
The Olmsted
3701 Frankfort Ave.
Louisville, KY 40206

An Interns Life

Shep — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:07:02 +0000

I am typing this from a hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee at about 12AM as I am down here with a very small City on a Hill crew shooting a video for an incredible ministry to recovering inmates in the Memphis area and beyond.

This will also be my first real personal entry to the City on a Hill blog, even though I have been creating video content for this here blog for a good long time. It is one of the joys and stresses of my internship at City on a Hill Productions. A position only a select few will ever achieve in their lifetime. A coveted position. A position often referred to by those who know as “indentured servitude”.

Why am I here, doing this? I decided to write about that particular story. (Out of a good many I could have possibly chosen.)
So I shall start in the beginning… I was born in a small run down apartment owned by my parents in the east end of Louisville in July of 1989… OK. So maybe not that far back.
I’ll start with more recent events. In 2006 I was 16 years old, and was only just beginning to feel the wind beneath my wings so to speak. Maybe I was a socially challenged homeschool student, (that’s a joke actually) but I had begun to really feel the calling of God on my life to pursue media. Then my parents decided an ordinary life with 7 kids wasn’t enough and they adopted 5 more from Western Africa. At that point I knew God was challenging my family to change our thinking in the area of family and ministry. What I wasn’t aware of was how God was changing and forming me for ministry in an area I began to have an inexplicable passion for. It happened as easy as breathing in a smoke filled room. I had to do it, even though it wasn’t always easy to follow through with. I didn’t get my desire to craft films and media with a neat little instruction package, so to speak, but I am blessed with parents who recognized my need to pursue this dream I had.

Fast forward a little. I am growing frustrated. I learned a lot through trial and error. Going to Africa I found the story, but struggled in learning how to communicate it. I do know that during this time I developed the most crucial connection I have made. Media is a mission field.
Yes I was ON the mission field, but I realized that what I was doing, bringing the mission field back to people safe in their homes through the power of visual storytelling, was a vocation in itself. I knew there was a language to learn, and I began praying that God would bring someone into my life who could help me better learn that language.
Enter City on a Hill. Stage left. It almost was that simple. I had placed this growing passion back in God’s hands a good many times, and it was during one of these spells where God proved he knew what He was doing, and that He knows how to keep secrets. I had no idea that there was a little production company growing up right beside me in my hometown. I couldn’t have dreamed that it was doing exactly what I was just feeling a desire to do, to use media to tell story and support missions, and to do that excellently. I am also pretty sure my mom did a good job of convincing Shane he needed to be teaching me. (Thanks mom!) Though I don’t think it hurt that I was not going to a full time school and was able to commit to an apprenticeship of sorts, and that I was able to drive. Believe me, I have run many an errand for City on a Hill. Many.

So you think that sounds easy? I wish I could write everything this has entailed, but for the sake of the ministry I will not. PETI would probably get involved if they knew how things really went down here.*

I continue to learn to communicate using this powerful medium of film, and I think I have found my home here for a while. I might have even convinced the staff I can be funny at times, which is quite an accomplishment, let me tell you.
I can only speculate what the continued journey will bring about. I am sure it includes fund-raising, and many projects I never dreamed I’d be given the chance to be a part of. Currently there are two specific projects I will be heading up in the near future I really should mention. One is a documentary in the country of Nepal I will be making this December. The other is “Shepherd’s Project” which has has been put on hold as we are extremely busy with other projects, like Easter Experience and such right now. It will be a very cool project though, and I am excited about it’s ministry potential. (hint: It’s about adoption)

There you go. That is my update for now. I hope you continue to enjoy reading and going behind the scenes with our ministry and the lives of the staff members who make this team of creative amalgamation. Thanks for listening.

Shepherd Ahlers
Intern/Apprentice

[*People for the Ethical Treatment of Interns]

Supporting Churches and Ministries

Richie — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:16:55 +0000

I hit the ground running doing a rough edit for the above video for Southern Acres Christian Church. It was quite a challenge because I’ve never had to edit anything that I didn’t shoot or write, and I don’t have a very complicated history with visual effects. Watching the final product I am, once again, amazed at the quality of the work done here, and I am looking forward to working with, and learning more from, the talented staff here at CHP.

I’m now in my fourth week of employment, and I feel that I am starting to settle in, and get a more concrete, cohesive grasp of what life here will look like. As Ministry Support Director, I will be producing films promoting and supporting the important work of Missions and Ministries. I am very excited to see how God will continue to use CHP in partnership with these Missions and Ministries to represent Jesus Christ to the world.

Truth. Equality. Simplicity. Peace.

Richard Ramsey

Ministry Support Director

City on a Hill… A Prayer Request… A Purpose Revealed

Tony — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:31:19 +0000

From a prayer request! That’s how my journey with City started just over 5 years ago. A simple request for me and the other men in our weekly bible study to be praying for office space to come available so that a newly formed ministry called City On A Hill Productions could have a space for the first employee to report for work. That’s how this incredible journey started for me…from prayer supporter, to office space provider, to financial supporter, to Board Treasurer, and now, most recently, the ministry’s Administrator….hence this. My first ever blog!

It’s been nothing short of incredible to see how the Lord’s plans for City have unfolded before my eyes, and it’s been exciting to be an integral part of that plan. I knew when I started thinking about starting my own business over 7 years ago, that there was a much higher purpose for starting the business than just performing the work we’ve been given and trying to be profitable. As I grew in my walk with the Lord and developed close friendships with other Christian men who I could receive council from and confide in, I began to pray about His plans for my career and that His will be done with the talents He had blessed me with. I began to accept that His plans were not my plans and I began to re-define my definition of “success”. I started to see one door after another open and the path started to become clearer and clearer…I knew the Lord was calling me to leave the comfort of the promising future at a large corporation to step out in faith and follow Him.

So, that’s what I did, I started my business almost 6 years ago knowing how truly blessed I was that the Lord had opened doors and made the path clear enough that I didn’t have to guess if I was making the right decision. On the contrary, I KNEW I was making the right decision because, through His grace, He made it so absolutely clear that this was His plan.

That’s when the prayer request for office space for CHP came - shortly after starting the business and “falling” into a great deal on an office building twice the size of anything we would need for some time to come. THE prayer request, that led to a meeting with this ministry’s director, Shane Sooter, and a simple commitment from me to him that as long as I was blessed with the space, his ministry would be blessed with the space. THE prayer request ultimately caused me to want to get on board with the ministry and support it financially.

THE prayer request led to my increased involvement with the ministry by becoming a member of the board ….and now, serving as the Administrator for the growing ministry. THE prayer request eventually allowed me to step back and see just ONE of the Lord’s purposes for the business He had blessed me with…to support a ministry full of dedicated staff members that love the Lord and are dedicated to teaching how Christ taught, through telling stories, utilizing today’s communication tools to reach people with the Gospel message that might not otherwise be reached, and to support His Kingdom in any way that He wills.

I’m privileged to have to opportunity to serve at City. To work with such dedicated and talented staff members. To see the daily sacrifices of them along with hundreds of volunteers dedicated to our ministry and our purpose. Thanks to all who help make our ministry possible. Thanks to the Lord for providing the vision, purpose and resources for our ministry.

Thanks for THE prayer request that led to the privilege I have of serving as Administrator for City on a Hill!

In Him!

Tony Young

Administrative Director